Migrations Programme - [06/16/2008]

International Seminar: “Immigration and Citizenship Policies in the European Union”

In view of the fact that we are living through a period characterised by an increase in the migration phenomenon and the difficulty of managing the resulting diversity, many European countries have opted for the approach of citizenship to guarantee a certain cohesion and thus to prevent the decomposition of the countries and of the European Union itself.

With the aim of examining the current European debate in greater depth, the third GRIIP-CIDOB research seminar, coordinated by Ricard Barrero-Zapata (GRIIP, Pompeu Fabra University) and Gemma Pinyol (CIDOB Foundation), brought together several research studies that covered both the institutional and the regulatory aspects of citizenship policies in the European Union and other immigration-receiving countries.

The first round table, dedicated to the subject of naturalisation and immigrant inclusion processes featured the participation of Elena Dingu-Kyrklund, post-doctorate researcher at the CEIFO-Stockholms Universitet; she presented a comparative study of naturalisation practices in five European countries, and which analysed aspects such as whether the process influences the immigrant's decision to become naturalised. Jennifer Cheng, doctoral candidate and Guest Lecturer from Macquarie University, presented her study on citizenship examinations in Australia and Germany, both of which are based on the tests introduced in the United Kingdom, and with striking similarities. The third speaker, Guido Tintori, researcher at FIERI, presented the transnational side effects the Italian nationality laws are having on the other EU countries, stressing that one great beneficiary of Italian practices is Spain, given that shortly after they have gained Italian nationality, many Spanish-speaking immigrants emigrate to Spain, where they contribute strongly to the country's economy.

At the second round table, which focused on new perspectives on citizenship and integration policies, Eduardo Ruiz Vieytez, Director of the Human Rights Institute at the University of Deusto, presented the concept of post-identity society, which is based on the idea of an inclusive citizenship; he also stressed that the law is obliged to reflect the existing immigrant reality, in all its plurality. Jacqueline Gehring, Assistant Lecturer at the Department of Political Science of Allegheny College, tackled the subject of the fight against racial discrimination, paying particular attention to the strong relationship between level discrimination, political discourse and the implementation of the law. The session was brought to a close by Suzanne Mulcahy, post-doctoral researcher at University College Dublin, and who presented her study on Europe's attempt to establish a common integration policy, particularly highlighting the divergences that exist when it comes to implementing European initiatives by the EU Member States.

The participants on the last table compared national and local approaches in the context of the EU, beginning with an address by Ángel Chueca, Permanent Lecturer in International Public Law at the University of Zaragoza, during which he presented his study on foreigners’ right to suffrage in Spain; he claimed that the absence of immigrants' right to choose is one of the main limitations of civic-social citizenship. In his address, Any Freitas from the European University Institute spoke of the current political discourse on immigration in Italy and Spain and stressed that the discussions over immigration represent a possibility to rethink the concept of the Nation-State. The last presentation on the table was given by Andrew Davis, who presented his comparative study of the policies on immigrant integration in the Autonomous Communities of Madrid and Catalonia. He highlighted the lack of a Spanish university model for integration and stressed that the concept of multinational citizenship would be particularly interesting in the Spanish case of cultural diversity.

The seminar's final conclusions were made by Christian Joppke, Lecturer in Political Science at the American University of Paris. He made special reference to the concept of citizenship and its contradictory nature, given that it is based on both an external exclusivity and on an internal inclusiveness. Following this line of reasoning, he tackled the subject of the controversial citizenship examinations, claiming that from a liberal angle they are not problematic, given that they only test the external behaviour of immigrants and not their convictions, and stressing that only a citizenship based on citizens’ virtues would be fundamentally non-liberal.